Joseph Lawrence, sound designer for Diablo 3, interviewed by Kill Screen Daily, talking about the recording process:
Yeah, just moving it [bowl of peanuts, yogurt, spaghetti] around, squishing it with your hands, hitting it with something else. You experiment until you find something that’s really interesting. Usually we’ll have two people in a room, because once your hands get completely covered in goo then you don’t want to be touching a recorder. So we have one guy running the recorder and the other one doing the goo-mangling. You’ve got to always be open to experimentation, because there’s really no book you can open that says: “How to manipulate yogurt to make interesting sounds.”
Having played Diablo 3 for a few weeks now and now reading this interview, I can see how smart sound design plays off. As Lawrence points out himself, given the repetitive hack-and-slash nature of the game, varied, distinctive sound design really enhances the experience.